New home growth continues over summer, reports NHBC

The number of new homes being registered to be built across the UK continues to outperform 2014 levels, according to the latest National House-Building Council (NHBC) figures for July.

Following the strong figures reported for Q2 2015, the new statistics reveal an increase of 14% for the rolling quarter May to July, compared to the same period last year, with 43,684 new homes registered in the UK (32,521 private sector; 11,163 public sector). Last year, 38,365 new homes were registered in the same three-month period (28,804 private sector; 9,561 public sector).

The public sector increased by 17% during this time, when compared to the same period last year, providing further evidence of noticeable growth as a result of the changes to, and the extension of, the Affordable Homes Programme.

In July, registrations increased by 12%, with 14,876 new homes registered (11,270 private; 3,606 public) compared to 13,320 in the same month last year (10,389 private; 2,931 public).

Commenting on the latest registration statistics, NHBC’s chief executive Mike Quinton, said: “Following the strong growth we reported in our quarterly statistics, it is pleasing to see this progress continue into the second half of 2015. However, as we have continually stressed since housing output began to increase two years ago, the UK is still building way below the volumes of homes that we desperately need.”

Elmhurst Energy has welcomed the latest house building figures, which show that the government is on target to build 1m homes in this parliament. Figures published by the House Builders Federation show that nearly 200,000 homes were added to the housing stock in the last year.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond announced new housebuilding investments in his first Autumn Statement (23 November), along with new funds for roads and to improve the UK’s digital infrastructure.

The rise in house building completions is helping to tackle the housing crisis, but more work needs to be done if the government is to hit its one million new homes target, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Allowing local authorities to borrow to build homes could both help tackle the housing crisis and mitigate any emerging economic uncertainty, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has said ahead of the Autumn Statement.